


Emotional Roller-Coasters

by Crazynumnums



Category: Sex Education (TV)
Genre: F/M, Otis is the best!!, These three so rule, bit of fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-03-08
Packaged: 2019-11-13 21:21:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18039275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crazynumnums/pseuds/Crazynumnums
Summary: Maeve's fucked up. She knows it, Eric knows it, Otis knows it. Can she fix the friendship, and perhaps turn it into something more?





	Emotional Roller-Coasters

**Author's Note:**

> Ooooh, my first work for Sex Education. You know, if you haven't seen this show... firstly, why are you reading fanfics about it, but secondly, go watch it right now because it's incredible. I started watching because I thought it would be terrible and I could laugh at it, and then I binged it in two days. Basically, it rules, Otis is the best, Maeve needs a hug, Eric is so adorable, and Sean is a dick.

"Maeve, he's going to stab you."

She glared at Eric through thick lashes, but he looked unabashed. Sighing, she nodded. "I doubt that violence will come into it, because it's Otis, but..."

"When we were going through our, uh... _problems_..."

"You mean, when he was a gigantic dick to you by ditching you on your birthday. Yeah, I transformed him into a wanker that day."

"It's fine now. My point is, he'll lash out. Not at you, but he apparently destroyed his closet back then. You fucked up this badly? Who knows?"

She pursed her lips. Her life lately had been an absolutely roller-coaster of emotions. It started with Otis, because of course it did. Him giving her the trophy. It caused such elation in her, and she almost felt obligated to return the favour. Armed with nothing more than a blue sweater, she found him kissing Ola. A real punch in the gut, although probably a little bit of karma striking her, if she was brutally honest with herself. She nearly spoke out, ruined their moment. But she couldn't bring herself to do that. And she knew what the implications of her returning his sweater would be. She wasn't that awful.

Coming home to find her brother gone, was just throwing fuel on the fire. She hadn't done anything that day, but apparently the bottling up of her emotions was unhealthy, and if Eric thought Otis had been violent... he had reason to be slightly scared of her. Truth be told, she was slightly scared of herself sometimes.

But then she was accepted back to school. An absolute miracle, and one that, when questioned about it, Jackson swore up and down he had nothing to do with it. Maybe he was being truthful, maybe he wasn't. It didn't really matter to her. She was back! The clinic could continue! She could continue being around him, even if she didn't get to be _with_ him in the sense she wanted to be.

Then she heard Otis and Eric talking.

_"Let me guess. After all that preparation, you chickened out again."_

_"No!"_

_"You didn't?"_

_"No! I didn't. And... uh..."_

_"I was right?"_

_"Yeah."_

_"Wanking is perfectly normal. And perfectly fun. Lighten up man! You look like you just watched 10 000 puppies die."_

_"I still feel... uh... guilty."  
_

_"You're a sixteen-year-old boy who feels guilty about wanking to his girlfriend. You have serious issues."_

_"Fuck you too, Eric."_

Clearly the destruction session hadn't been as therapeutic as she thought it had been. She saw red. And the next thing she knew, she was standing in the middle of the hallway, having just lied to Ola, and having ruined Otis' first real relationship.

Apparently Eric had been talking for a while. Maeve tuned back in, but it was too late. She had to ask. "Sorry, what did you say?"

"I'm not the sex guru in this little group, that's for sure. But I know enough that you're feeling way too guilty about this." Maeve glowered. "Sorry, alleged guilt. You and Otis are two peas in a pod. What made you do this, anyway? I mean, the base reason is pretty obvious, to just about everyone by now, even Otis, that oblivious idiot. But what happened?"

"I- I don't know."

"Yeah, you do."

"I heard you two talking."

"Earlier?" Maeve nodded. "About..." Maeve continued nodding. "Wow. Okay, yeah, I can understand what happened now."

"How do I fix this?"

"Don't ask me! Not a fucking clue. You messed up pretty bad, Maeve."

"I need to talk to him, don't I?"

"Honestly, I don't know. I'd give him a little time. Try him tomorrow."

* * *

Well, it was tomorrow. Maeve was regretting every single decision she had made in her life. She'd been standing in front of the door for ten minutes, attempting to conjure up the nerve to knock on the door, but she wasn't sure she could do it.

"Are you just going to stand in front of the door all day, darling?"

Maeve jumped. Otis' mother was coming around the corner of the house, humour sparkling in her eyes, and putting Maeve slightly at ease. "Hello, uh..."

"It's Jean."

"Hello Jean. I was just about to leave." She turned to go.

"He wants to talk to you, Maeve."

Maeve turned and stared incredulously. There was a little bit to process in that sentence. "He does?"

"He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he does." Maeve's face fell. "You know how he can get. He's been holed up in his room for a while now, but I haven't heard any onomatopoeic sounds yet, so hopefully he's okay."

"Hopefully?"

"He really would appreciate your company."

Maeve stayed silent, mulling it over.

"And if it turned into more than company, I certainly wouldn't hear any--"

"Yes, thank you very much, Jean." She knew Jean's reputation, despite never having met the woman, and didn't want their first meeting to turn into a sex talk. "I'll go in, I suppose."

"Hopefully I see you again, Maeve." There it was again. Something about that sentence struck her as odd.

"How do you know my name?" she asked, while entering the house.

"You know, despite what he thinks, I do actually listen when he talks. Which isn't very often, but he's mentioned you a few times."

"What did he say?"

"He said you were the worst fucking person he'd ever met." Maeve jumped a little, causing Jean to laugh a little. "It was all good things. Well, not all good, but... you get the idea. He seemed to like you."

"Thank you, Jean." She had already headed into her office. "Well, here goes nothing."

* * *

This was not the scene she had been expecting.

Maeve was expecting a distraught Otis, one who would snap at her to leave his room, who would be curled up in the fetal position. Not an Otis sitting on his bed, watching something on his phone, and smiling. Although, he did immediately turn off his phone and adopt an almost sombre expression when Maeve entered the room.

"Hi, Otis."

"Hey, Maeve."

An awkward silence took hold of the room.

"What were you doing?"

"Watching Netflix."

Otis' use of two word sentences did not go unnoticed by Maeve, and she did her best to ignore it. "I thought I'd better come over here. Because, uh... well, I needed to apologise."

"Apology accepted."

Maeve tilted her head, a little confused at his quick acceptance of her back into his life. "Sooo... what happened between you and Ola, then?" He was suspiciously happy still, and while she was grateful for that, she couldn't help but wonder why. Were he and Ola still a thing? Had she embarrassed herself for nothing?

"We split up."

"I-I'm really sorry, Otis. I didn't want to make her dump you."

"She didn't dump me. It was mutual and happy."

This was news to Maeve. Exciting, thrilling, and intriguing news. "What?! Why?"

"I didn't want to be with her? Seems like a pretty obvious reason to me. I would still be with her if I wanted to be. As long as she wanted to, of course."

"But... what about what I said?"

"You said you had sex with me last night." Otis paused, and she wondered if it was just for effect. "In the time that you've known me, have I ever been at all comfortable with sexual situations?"

"You couldn't even wank."

"Exactly."

"So she knew I was lying?"

"Of course she did! She still knows me. So we had a talk. Mostly about you, to be honest. And we agreed that we didn't really hold romantic feelings for each other. We were just interested in romantic relationships, and we latched onto each other, but we never really liked each other in that way, I don't think."

"I still feel awful. Why aren't you mad at me?"

Otis snorted. "That would be a little hypocritical of me."

"Hypocritical? How?"

"I tried to get you and Jackson apart from each other. The only difference between what we did was how effective it was. You were successful, and I wasn't."

Maeve tried to process what this meant for their relationship. His omission that he and Ola never really wanted to be with one another didn't mean that he definitely wanted to be with her. But it was an opening. Maeve never tried very hard to be optimistic, but maybe this could be one of those rare times.

"I don't know what I was thinking, Otis." A complete lie.

He knew it, too. "Yeah, you do. I told you, I've done the same thing before. Not much of this is that new to me."

She didn't know that Otis would've taken that leap of faith. She didn't know that he would ever have the balls to. Not a bad thing. Just part of who he was. And she loved that.

So she jumped.

And kissed him.

Otis was... not great. At least at first. Maybe he was a little tense. It must've been pretty good by the end, because when she pulled away she found herself wanting to go back in. But she couldn't pinpoint the exact moment that she'd gone from thinking  _pretty average_ to  _I want more._

He sensed her hesitation. "Sorry, if I wasn't... um... _good_."

An oddly simple term, considering the intelligence of the guy, but it worked. "No! No, you were great." She curled into him, wrapping her arms around him. He got the hint, and lay down backwards on his bed. She felt his hands immediately go to her hair, and his touch was soothing.

"Your mum talked to me before."

"Oh?"

"She said she'd pretend not to hear anything."

"Of course she did. You know I'm genophobic, right?"

"Surely you have to face your fears head on, right?" She was grinning now, and she could feel through his jaw that he was too.

"Not today."

She mock-pouted, then grinned a little. "Is there such a thing as a sweet seventeen?"

"No."

"Hey! I'm compromising here. We can meet halfway."

"Fine."

Maeve clapped, with glee, although if anybody asked Otis, he would've sworn she clapped with mirth.

**Author's Note:**

> Bizarre question here: how weird is it if a character in a Netflix Original watches Netflix? Netflix-ception. Anyhoo, hopefully you enjoyed, and hopefully more people start watching this show so that the fandom can get more traction!
> 
> Until next time,  
> Crazynumnums :D xx


End file.
